Church of Santa María das Areas

Igrexa de Santa María das Areas is a church in Finisterra, Province of A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. It was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 1985. This Romanesque temple was founded around the 12th century.

History

It is possibly located on an old castro. Its foundation is attributed to Urraca Fernández, daughter of the Count of Traba, who in 1199 wrote a deed of donation indicating V. modios de pane et tertian vacarum mearum de montealto. Ad opus ecclesie Ste. Marie de finibus terre, meaning -Five bushels of bread and a third of my cows from Montealto. For the work of the church of St. Mary at the ends of the earth.-

The complex was built in two stages: the first one being the 12th century Romanesque central nave and the second 14th~15th century Gothic elements added such as Our Lady of Mount Carmel's chapel, the high altar and the baptistery, with ribbed vaults.

As a mixed temple, it lacks the frecuent shape of pligrimage churches (owning the lack of ambulatory), given that the nearby hermitage was at some point site of Jacobean cult.

Building

Altarpiece of Christ

The church is made with local granite. It has a central nave, oriented towards the west, covered by a wooden roof and local red tiles, with powerful buttresses and few bays, typical of the Romanesque. The nave is preceded by a narthex with Gothic characteristics, with a staircase to access the bell tower, with a pyramidal roof and a square plan.